JOHN 5:45-47
(NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE)

45 Do not think that I will accuse you
before the Father; the one who accuses
you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope.
46 For if you believed Moses, you would
believe Me, for he wrote about Me.
47 But if you do not believe his writings,
how will you believe My words?

v. 45 … Moses … The Jews took great pride identifying with Moses. Moses was the man God picked to lead them out of captivity in Egypt. Moses was the one God gave the Ten Commandments, and all the rest of the Jewish Law as well. But in bringing up Moses Jesus exposes how shallow their real respect for Moses was since they didn’t actually accept in practice what Moses taught.

v. 46 … For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me … Where did Moses write about Jesus? In many, many, many verses in The Old Testament … and we’ll get into many of them in a few months when we study in more depth, the symbols and metaphors for Jesus Christ in The Old Testament. As you may or may not know, Moses wrote the first five books of The Old Testament … GENESIS, EXODUS, LEVITICUS, NUMBERS, and DEUTERONOMONY … commonly called The Books Of the Law, or The Pentateuch (meaning “The Five”).

And as we close our worship time together this morning, let me share with you one of the most fascinating ways Moses spoke of and prophesied about the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ in the books he wrote under the leadership of God’s Holy Spirit. Turn with me in your Bibles to GENESIS 5.

Even in those parts of The Old Testament that can seem boring and pointless we find God’s WORD speaking of Jesus Christ.

GENESIS 5 is an entire chapter of this seemingly “boring and pointless” genealogy stuff … thirty-two verses detailing the family tree from Adam to Noah … Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalelel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah.

And when Jesus says in JOHN 5:46 that the Scriptures Moses wrote were speaking of Him, He wasn't exaggerating. Because when you look at the Hebrew meaning of each of the names in this genealogy you see what Jesus was talking about …

Adam means Man
Seth means Appointed
Enosh means Mortal
Kenan means Sorrow
Mahalalel means The Blessed God
Jared means Will Come Down
Enoch means Teaching
Methuselah means His Death Will Bring
Lamech means The Despairing
Noah means Rest

Do you see it?

Even as he wrote out this ancient genealogy, Moses is writing out the story of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, our Savior, the One who stepped out of heaven so that He could step into our hearts.

Man. Appointed Mortal Sorrow.
The Blessed God Will Come Down Teaching.
His Death Will Bring The Despairing Rest.

How exciting to know that no matter where we look in God’s WORD we see the testimony of Who Jesus Christ is and what He came to do staring right back at us. And that along with the testimony of God’s WORD, the testimony of God the Father, Moses, and John the Baptist all corroborate with the testimony of Jesus Christ to say that He is the Son of God, the second member of the Trinity, the Messiah, Emmanuel – God With Us.

And so as we go out of church today to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ in the Food Drive, as we let the light of God shine through us with power, with brightness, and with great hope … let’s be excited about how God wants to use us to testify to the reality, and to the absolute truth of Jesus Christ. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg